Scientists with expertise in skin hides and leather in East Africa have jointly designed on online website to boost the leather business in the region.

This was revealed in a zoom meeting held on April 29, 2021 where the experts contended that the trade in leather and leather products in the East African Community has enormous potential and is growing at an annual average rate of 1.5 percent.

Therefore to boost the trade among the East African Community (ECM) members, the Leather Industry Network platform for the East African region (LIN-East Africa) was officially launched and the scientists called upon stakeholders engaged in this business to log for access of information.

The EAC partner states include Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Background

LIN-East Africa offers leather stakeholders a reliable virtual space to connect, interact and transact business.

According to Beatrice Mwasi, Director for the Centre for Business Innovation & Training (CBiT) based in Nairobi the platform serves as a one-stop shop for information on the sector, including facts and statistics, as well as other quantitative measures for assessing, comparing and tracking performance and production.

To her this is not a single hand initiative but done jointly with Richard Okoth form Uganda, James Jong from South Sudan and Charles Kuwuthu of the  East African Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture Nairobi Kenya among others.

“This information is necessary in shaping the industry’s policy direction as well as disseminating market information that is key to improving industry processes so as to better meet the needs of customers,”

More importantly, for the first time, the platform offers an easy-to-use interface that helps industry players to build and manage their business portfolios.

The interface also allows consumers to connect conveniently with other market players in the regional leather sector including manufacturers, agents and the government, thus eliminating unnecessary intermediaries

Benefits and challenges

Kahuthu explained that online trading allows business to move on smoothly by avoiding too much paper work which sometimes can be hectic.

This to him is important because stakeholders will be in position to share South- South cooperation on best practices as to how quality products can be processed from leather.

Challenges such bad infrastructure will also avoided coupled with manufacturers abiding to quality standard policies in the entire region.

All these benefits make the LIN-East Africa platform the ultimate gateway to the East African leather sector and an effective tool for boosting trade in leather and leather products.

Statistics

Giving the statics Kahuthu noted that leather is the most traded agro-based commodity in the world, with an annual market value of about $200 billion. This is higher than the revenues generated from coffee, tea, rice, rubber, cotton and sugar combined.

The East African leather industry represents about 0.24 percent of the $200 billion in the global market value, with annual revenues of $478 million, comprising $106.4 million in wet leather and $372 million in finished products.

The industry’s share of the global market for leather contributes a modest 0.28 percent of the East African Community’s GDP and is in decline, according to the EAC Leather and Leather Products Strategy and Implementation Roadmap for 2020-2030.

“This negative trend does not reflect the true potential in the sector, as resources such as the region’s large population of cows, sheep and goats - estimated by the East African Community Secretariat at 150 million animals in 2013 are abundant, renewable and readily available,” Ms Mwasi added.

 The sector is leaking value because of several factors, among them a weak policy environment that discourages investment in value-added products such as footwear and leather goods, continued exports of critical raw materials, such as hides and skins, and wet blue leather, and weak institutional arrangements in enforcing quality and standards in the value chain.

How the portal operates

Abdul Ssekandi the East African coordinator explained that the websites has detailed information about leather business country by country.

In case someone needs information from Uganda he or she will simply click on the Country Uganda section to get the available information

There are social media links namely facebook, email, among others which stakeholders can use for chatting useful information

There are also peer reviewed journals by scientists dealing in the leather Industry including latest articles by experts